Parade of Homes promoting more ‘urban’ feel in return to New Albany

The 2010 edition of the region’s annual Parade of Homes will offer more than a suburban subdivision for visitors to the eight houses in the tour.

This year’s show by Building Industry Association of Central Ohio will extend from July 24 to Aug. 8 in New Albany, the first time in 11 years that the community has hosted the parade. The residential arm of developer New Albany Co. will host the event at its Ackerly Park community, a short walk from the village’s Market Street commercial district.

“It’s the first time the (BIA) has done a parade in an urban setting,” said Tom Rubey, New Albany Co.’s development director. “It’s literally a stone’s throw away from the village center.”

When built out, Ackerly Place streets and sidewalks will connect the Upper Fenway subdivision to the village center.

New Albany Co. last hosted a Parade of Homes in 1999 at the Tiverton at Lampton Park subdivision. It also hosted the event in 1991 and 1992.

“It’s long overdue,” Jim Hilz, the builder association’s executive director, said of the tour’s return to New Albany. The setting, he said, offers “a lot of amenities close to the site.”

Wooster-based Weaver Custom Homes and Zeppernick Custom Homes of New Albany are participating in their first parade. Those returning to the show include Kevin Knight & Co. of Powell; Lewis Center-based New England Homes, Dani Homes Ltd. and Bob Webb Group; and Columbus builders Tuckerman Home Group Inc. and the Showcase Homes division of M/I Homes Inc.

Four of the eight houses have buyers.

“It’s been very successful up to this point,” Rubey said of the early sales.

A July 23 evening fundraiser will launch the parade. Rubey said the parade will conclude just as the village opens its Taste of New Albany festival, which he said “will give folks a chance to see the village center in action.”

Heiserman hiring boosts Colliers’ healthcare practice

The Columbus office of Colliers International has started a health-care services group, hiring former Street/Sotheby’s International Realty brokerage agent Paul Heiserman.

“Colliers is working on the formation of a (national) health services group,” said Heiserman, who joined the office July 2. “I’m part of that vision.”

Heiserman had formed a medical-tenant advisory business in late 2006 with Tom Dalcolma at Equity Inc. That practice became Medical Realty Advisors after they went to work for Street/Sotheby’s in April 2008.

Uncertainty in the medical field linked to federal health-care reform convinced Heiserman that a national brokerage network would provide better research and marketing resources than he could develop alone for his physician clients. Access to those resources “saves me a lot of time,” Heiserman said, “and allows me to focus on the core activities of creating the most value for my clients.”

Dalcolma said he is staying at Street/Sotheby’s and will continue to focus on medical deals.

Alvis House, pharmacists’ group complete deals for new homes

A former Ohio Department of Insurance office building off Dublin Road in Columbus has been sold to Alvis House, a nonprofit social services agency assisting ex-offenders.

Alvis House, at 1991 Bryden Road, bought the three-story, 51,089-square-foot property on July 16 for $1.2 million to serve as administrative offices for its work in Columbus, Toledo, Dayton and Chillicothe. The offices also will host employment training and other client programs.

The agency financed the deal and planned improvements from $1.8 million in bonds issued through Franklin County.

Morton said the building had been vacant for two years and cost the Charles Conrad family trust $91,800 in annual taxes and operational costs. “The time had come to sell the property,” he said.

The Stella Court property had been set for auction before the Ohio Equities team in March identified the offices as an alternative to another site considered by Alvis House – the former Safe Auto Insurance Co. complex in Whitehall.

Separately, the Ohio Pharmacists Association in late June bought a 5,986-square-foot office in northwest Columbus from Delta Energy Holdings LLC for $825,000. The trade group, now at 2155 Riverside Drive in Upper Arlington, financed the deal through a $415,000 mortgage from First Merit Bank. It will not occupy the building until Delta Energy finishes building its Dublin headquarters in 2011.